The present invention relates to a method for sampling cigarettes on a filter assembly machine.
Cigarettes on filter assembly machines are generally subjected to two main types of inspection, the first comprising a "condition" inspection, usually conducted on all the cigarettes, and the second comprising a "ventilation" inspection, usually conducted statistically on sample cigarettes picked off the cigarette manufacturing line at a preset frequency.
On known types of filter assembly machines, the sample cigarettes picked off the line are generally taken away and disposed of after inspection.
As modern filter assembly machines are designed for producing thousands of cigarettes a minute, disposing, for example, of one cigarette per hundred amounts to the disposal of a few packs a minute, which means a considerable loss in economic terms.